Hello have the rules changed or have they just started to enforce them?

When setting up a company there has to be amin of 3 Thai share holders with one having more shares called director

 

   But when purchasing property via a company it now seems the land office needs to see bank accounts from all the Thai share holders is this new? (even if all Share holders and director are Thai) 

 

This could be a problem as some companies don’t even know who the share holders are? 

Or is this just another excuse/way to extract tea money

 

More likely it's your local land office being difficult.

Maybe they're looking for a bribe.

A director does not have to be a shareholder.

 

All shareholders are known as every shareholder and all share transfers are registered with the Department of Business Development.

I recall that in some jurisdictions, the Thai shareholders in a company-owned property venture are also required to provide tax returns. I think it's a legal requirement but like anything else in Thailand, something that maybe lawyers and government officers can find a mutually agreeable 'workaround' for?

 

A friend of mine has a registered business that's been trading for around six years already. They are now jumping through new bureaucratic hoops with regard to how a certain tax is levied. It appears that there's a new person in charge of the local revenue department where this particular tax is assessed and handled who, after over five years of no tax problems under the previous regime, appears to want to do it a different way.

 

My friend would normally see this as the "new broom sweeps clean" syndrome. We've witnessed that at immigration offices when we're given the 'new boss' excuse for extra paperwork or a new policy on giving change or even receipts. However, since the government's coffers have been eviscerated due to fiscal mismanagement and Covid, he suggests that there's a big push from the top down to review new businesses as well as existing ones to follow the rules and laws and close any loopholes.

 

Whether this goes beyond reassessing the usual money under the table, brown envelope, laziness or whatever you want to call it, I think it would depend on how much money they manage to find. His is a small business so I guess it's far easier for them to go after the low-hanging fruit first? I would think that the company-owned house and land that has a farang in the mix would be an equally easy target.